Influencing change
We held debates on liver disease and liver cancer in all three parliaments across the UK. The debates in the Senedd and Holyrood were the first held on liver disease and liver cancer, and we held our first debate in Westminster on fatty liver disease.- Over 90 MPs, including the then Health Minster Helen Whately MP, joined us for our annual Parliamentary Liver Awareness Day in Westminster Parliament in January 2023.
- 637 supporters wrote to 335 MPs supporting our early detection campaign, calling on Government to deliver on its commitment to rollout FibroScans to 100 CDCs by March 2025.
- We launched our first nation report on liver cancer in October. Speakers at the launch included the Shadow Labour Health Minister, Preet Kaur Gill MP, Chair of the APPG on Cancer, Elliot Colburn MP, APPG Vice Chair of the APPG on Liver Disease, Peter Gibson MP, and patient advocate Monica.
Highlights from 2023
Nurse-led helpline
The British Liver Trust Helpline is provides support to anyone affected by a liver condition.
- In 2023, we answered over 4,800 helpline queries
- We now have 6 part time nurses in our team and hope to recruit a liver cancer nurse funded by Macmillan this year
- We have extended our helpline hours and are now open 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday. All enquiries to our nurse-led helpline and email service are always answered by a specialist nurse
Support groups
- We held 128 support groups, with over 300 people accessing our groups in 2023
- We have launched a new monthly carers group, offering peer to peer support for those looking after someone with any kind of liver disease.
- We have restarted the Aberdeen Liver Support group and are just about to run our first Newcastle face to face liver support group.
Love Your Liver Roadshow
- We held 25 public roadshow events across the UK, to identify those at risk of liver disease and offer them a free liver scan
- During our public days we scanned 2617, people – with 234 given a letter for their GP to follow up
- We worked in partnership with other organisations to deliver an additional 23 roadshow events, scanning 1435 more people.
Publications
- Our publications were downloaded for free over 40,000 times
- More than 23,500 copies of our physical publications were ordered
- We published new patient information resources on the following subjects:
- Additional information was created for our website on money, including life insurance, travel insurance, prescription costs, and benefits (part of soon-to-be-launched Living with liver disease update)